LI LGBT group blasts decision by Sessions

By: Joe Dowd October 5, 2017Comments Off on LI LGBT group blasts decision by Sessions

The New York LGBT Network on Thursday condemned a decision by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse a federal policy that protected transgender workers from discrimination.

The Woodbury-based advocacy group was responding to a memo Sessions wrote arguing the 1964 civil rights law does not apply to gender identity. The memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News, was a reversal of the expansion of LGBT rights under the Obama administration.

“Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status,” Sessions wrote in the memo. That section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

“This despicable action of reversing protections for transgender people in the workplace is just another example of attempts by the Trump administration to deny tens of thousands of Americans equal rights,” said David Kilmnick, president and CEO of the New York LGBT Network. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the decision by the attorney general, which fails to live up to the law and the standards of the American people and the American judicial system.”

The Woodbury-based advocacy group, founded in 1993, is an association of nonprofit organizations working to serve the LGBT community of Long Island and Queens, according to its website. The group estimates that some 300,000 Long Islanders identify as LGBTQ.

Kilmnick described the decision by Sessions as “disgraceful,” in light of a of a suggestion by the administration to bar transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, where many are already serving.